NewsBits for September 26, 2003 sponsored by,
Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu
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Feds Make Arrest in Blaster Internet Worm Case
Prosecutors in Seattle said Friday that they had
arrested a juvenile for releasing a variant of the
Blaster worm that devastated computers worldwide
and targeted Microsoft Corp.'s computers. The
arrest of the juvenile, whose identity was sealed
from the public, was for "intentionally causing
damage and attempting to cause damage to protected
computers," a federal offense, said John McKay,
United States Attorney for the Western District
of Washington.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6534-2003Sep26.html
http://www.msnbc.com/news/972467.asp
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2003-09-26-blaster-second-juvey-arrest_x.htm
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German police bust child porn ring
Police have cracked a huge international child
pornography network involving some 26,500 Internet
users in 166 countries, German authorities said on
Friday. "One of the biggest internationally active
networks has been smashed," said Curt Becker, justice
minister for the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5082832.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/33083.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3142080.stm
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U.S. Arrests More Than 1,000 in Crackdown
A wide-ranging investigation into child pornography
and sexual abuse of children has netted more than
1,000 arrests worldwide since it began in July,
authorities said Friday. The crackdown, dubbed
"Operation Predator," has resulted in arrests
in nearly every state and most major U.S. cities,
said Michael J. Garcia, director of the Immigration
and Customs Enforcement agency. Arrests have included
U.S. citizens who traveled abroad to have sex with
minors, people charged with molesting mentally
impaired children and people who smuggled foreign
children into the United States to work as prostitutes,
Garcia said. About 400 of the arrests were on charges
of manufacturing or distributing child pornography
on the Internet.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,98420,00.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/LAW/09/26/child.predator.ring/
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=3515993
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Madison man sentenced for dealing child pornography
The sharing of Internet images of nude children engaging
in sexual activity has led to a seven-year, six-month
prison sentence for a Madison man. Steven Dennis, 34,
was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in New
Albany after he pleaded guilty to a charge of distribution
of child pornography, a felony. According to a press
release from the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern
District of Indiana, in August 2002 a witness, not a
member of Dennis's family, saw child pornography images
on Dennis's home computer. A computer forensic examination
revealed images of children engaging in sexual activity
with other children and with adults. The U.S. attorney's
office described the age of the children as prepubescent.
http://www.madisoncourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=253&ArticleID=14288
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Md. Chess Star 'Not Guilty' In Internet Sex Case
A federal court jury found a 32-year-old Maryland
chess star not guilty Thursday of using an online
relationship to cross state lines in hopes of
a sexual encounter with a 15-year-old Alabama girl.
An attorney for Alex Sherzer claimed he was led
into the relationship by investigators who assumed
the girl's persona. Sherzer said he began e-mailing
the girl in December after seeing her self-posted
Internet profile.
http://www.thewbalchannel.com/news/2512056/detail.html
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Man charged in sex assault
A 36-year-old Milwaukee man was charged Wednesday
with luring a 13-year-old boy from Chicago after
meeting him over the Internet, and sexually
assaulting the youth in a Milwaukee apartment.
The complaint says that the boy told a detective
that he began chatting with Jones on an Internet
dating Web page about three months ago. He said
that Jones started chatting about sex and suggested
that the boy come to Milwaukee so they could have
sex, the complaint says.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/sep03/172319.asp
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Importuning charge filed against Lima man
Lima police have charged another person with soliciting
sex from a minor, this time when an officer posed as
a 15-year-old boy over the Internet. Craig Darbyshire,
39, was arrested at his Lima home at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Darbyshire allegedly tried to lure a person he thought
was a boy to his home with the promise of sex. Officers
with the department's PACE unit, who for the past year
have been tracking potential sex offenders with a
description of a 14-year-old girl online, showed up
at the home instead.
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030925/NEWS03/30925005
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Former Teacher Pleads Guilty To Purchasing Child Pornography
A former teacher agreed to plead guilty to federal
charges he purchased a pornographic videotape. Daniel
T. Flynn, 38, of Newport Beach, Calif., sent $30 for
a half-hour tape to an undercover U.S. postal inspector
posing as an Internet smut peddler, prosecutors said.
The tape was to have depicted 10- to 13-year-old boys
having sex. Flynn allegedly began corresponding with
the undercover postal inspector by e-mail in March.
A few weeks later, he sent $30 in cash to an Illinois
address to procure the pornographic tape. Flynn could
face up to 15 years in prison, the prosecutor said.
http://www.nbc4.tv/news/2514452/detail.html
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York man convicted on child pornography charges
A local man has been convicted of possession
of sexually explicit materials, including child
pornography. Walter Webster, 58, of 2 Deacon
Drive, was convicted on 12 counts of the Class
D misdemeanor. He was arrested in April after
a family friend tipped off police that he had
the material on his home computer.
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/09262003/maine/52061.htm
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Vigilantes on Internet create trouble for cops
Call them Internet vigilantes, prowling the Web in
search of adults trying to pick up underage teens.
"They got me," said Brian Graves, red-eyed from lack
of sleep, his hands shaking from too much coffee.
"What I did wasn't right. But what they did is even
worse." Early one morning last week, Graves -- a 42
-year-old math teacher at Warren Mott High School
-- started a chat over the Internet with someone who
said she was a 13-year-old from Ferndale. Before long,
the conversation turned to sex. Later, the teen asked
for his phone number. He gave it to her. But Graves
wasn't really chatting with a teenage girl. On the
other end of the line was a 28-year-old Wisconsin man
who's part of a Web site called Perverted-Justice.com.
Its mission, the site says, is to target "wannabe
pedophiles."
http://www.freep.com/money/tech/mwend25_20030925.htm
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Internet Attacks Hit Spam Blockers
Three Web sites that provide spam blocking lists
have shut down as a result of crippling Internet
attacks in what experts Thursday said was an
escalation in the war between spammers and opponents
of unsolicited e-mails. Anti-spam experts said they
thought spammers were behind the attacks, although
they had no way of proving it.
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5082728.html
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/22374.html
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-09-26-spam-sites-attacked_x.htm
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/33083.html
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New Computer Worm Spreading
Yonhap--A new computer worm that spreads through
MSN's instant messenger service has been attacking
South Korean networks, possibly infecting thousands
of terminals,Internet security experts warned Friday.
The worm, known as W32/Smess.worm, BadTrans, appears
attached to an instant message as a file named
``smb.exe. The worm is a mutant version of another
worm called Sinmsn,which was detected last July.
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/tech/200309/kt2003092616342811820.htm
Insecure about Microsoft's security (Series of stories)
http://news.com.com/2009-7355_3-5082632.html
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Senate panel approves jail for spammers
Internet "spammers" who flood e-mail inboxes with
deceptive pitches could face up to five years in jail
under a bill approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee
on Thursday. The "Criminal Spam Act of 2003" joins
several other anti-spam measures advancing through
Congress. Lawmakers had hoped to pass an anti-spam
bill into law this year, but that looks increasingly
unlikely as both chambers hope to adjourn in little
more than a week.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5082785.html
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Experts question effectiveness of California anti-spam law
A new state law that targets unsolicited bulk e-mails
peddling everything from low mortgages to Viagra
likely stands little chance of reducing the number
of junk messages that are clogging Californians'
e-mail boxes. Even if the law, supposed to take
effect Jan. 1, passes expected court challenges,
it's still unlikely to stem the flow of spam,
legal and anti-spam experts say.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/6868868.htm
Spam laws must go further
http://www.vnunet.com/Comment/1143893
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Worm ate my homework, Rollins students tell teachers
Ever since classes started for students a month ago
at Rollins College, a worm has been eating their
homework. A virus-like "worm" has infected the small
college's computer network, slowing Internet use to
a crawl and forcing some students off campus to do
research. The school's computer technology team
said Thursday that they have cleaned the system by
going door to door on campus until 11 p.m. the last
few days, looking for computers infected with the
virus, known as "W32.Welchia."
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2003-09-26-rollins-worm-fight_x.htm
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BSA offers immunity for copyright confessors
The Business Software Alliance is making an offer
it hopes companies can't refuse - confess your
copyright crimes and we won't prosecute. The
Business Software Alliance (BSA) is urging any
users who believe they may be in breach of software
licences or copyright to "throw their hands up" and
confess their crimes in exchange for immunity from
prosecution.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39116689,00.htm
Chance is most effective weapon against software piracy
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39116706,00.htm
U.S. Is Only the Tip of Pirated Music Iceberg
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/26/technology/26MUSI.html
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UK cybercops get forensics code
Police have been issued new guidelines for gathering
computer crime and electronic forensic evidence that
deals with handling PDAs and mobile phones and the
use of outside expert witnesses in investigations.
The revised Good Practice Guide for Computer-based
Electronic Evidence has been compiled by the National
Hi-Tech Crime Unit and the Association of Chief Police
Officers with the aim of assisting the seizure of
equipment and data and preventing its corruption.
http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105_2-5082815.html
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Librarians to P2P critics: Shhh!
In a hotly contested lawsuit before a federal appeals
court, two peer-to-peer companies are about to gain
a vast army of allies: America's librarians. The five
major U.S. library associations are planning to file
a legal brief Friday siding with Streamcast Networks
and Grokster in the California suit, brought by the
major record labels and Hollywood studios. The
development could complicate the Recording Industry
Association of America's efforts to portray file-
swapping services as rife with spam and illegal
pornography.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5082684.html
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Network honeypots nab surprises
Holes in company networks are being exploited by
hackers and fraudulent employees to store and
distribute illegal pornography, media files and
pirated software. A "honeypot" network set up
purely to attract and monitor the level and type
of hacking activity on the Internet has found
hackers are routinely scanning for misconfigured
file transfer protocol (FTP) servers that allow
them to upload and store material secretly on
company networks for later download.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5082762.html
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Security Scout Keeps You One Step Ahead of Viruses
The Internet is a battlefield and your computer
is under constant bombardment. In such a dangerous
digital world, knowledge is your shield, but who
has the expertiselet alone the exhaustive resources
necessary to scour the Web for pertinent, accurate
alerts, patches, and the like? You do, now.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1276860,00.asp
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Don't gamble on security
The author is vice-president of Oracle Government,
Education and Healthcare at Oracle Corp. Canada
Inc. He is responsible for Oracle's public sector
business operations across Canada. The stakes
have never been higher for information security,
especially information assurance the degree of
confidence that citizens can have in the security
claims of organizations like the Canadian government.
http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030926.gtflsep26/BNStory/Technology/
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Microsoft Critic Sacked
"It would not surprise me if Microsoft was involved
in this," says CCIA president Ed Black. "Companies
doing business with them know they are subject to
retaliation if they say or do anything that is critical
of Microsoft." The lead author of a report that blasts
Microsoft has been sacked by the security firm he works
for, which does business with the software giant.
Daniel Geer, the chief technology officer at @Stake,
was among a group of computer-security authorities
who compiled the research, released on Wednesday
with backing from the Computer & Communications
Industry Association (CCIA).
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/22375.html
Anti-Microsoft security report mired in politics
http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,85441,00.html
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Davis Signs Law to Boost TV, Computer Monitor Recycling
The nation's most comprehensive law to solve the
machines' toxic waste problem could add to the
cost of new models next July. Gov. Gray Davis
signed the nation's most comprehensive law Thursday
to speed recycling of discarded computer monitors
and televisions, an estimated 6 million of which
are stacked in California offices and homes waiting
to be tossed.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-computers26sep26,1,71420.story
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